HACKER Q&A
📣 fandorin

Why is everyone here so AI-hyped?


I get it - LLMs do have some value, but not as much as everyone (especially those from AI labs) is trying to pitch. I can't help thinking that it's so obvious we are almost at the very top of this bubble - but here it feels like the majority of HN doesn't think like that...

Yet just in 2026 we had:

- AI.com was sold for $70M - Crypto.com founder bought it to launch yet another "personal AI agent" platform, which promptly crashed during its Super Bowl ad debut.

- MoltBook-mania - a Reddit clone where AI bots talk to each other, flooded with crypto scams and "AI consciousness" posts. 250,000+ bot posts burning compute for what actual value? [0]

- OpenClaw - a "super open-source AI agent" that is a security nightmare.

- GPT-5.3-Codex and Opus 2.6 were released. Reviewers note they're struggling to find tasks the previous versions couldn't handle. The improvements are incremental at best.

I understand there are legitimate use cases for LLMs, but the hype-to-utility ratio seems completely out of whack.

Am I not seeing something?

[0] https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/06/1132448/moltbook-was-peak-ai-theater/

  👤 minimaxir Accepted Answer ✓
You are selection biasing towards the most extreme cases of AI absurdity.

> GPT-5.3-Codex and Opus 2.6 were released. Reviewers note they're struggling to find tasks the previous versions couldn't handle. The improvements are incremental at best.

I have not seen any claims of this other than Opus 4.6 being weirdly token-hungry.

👤 peschu
maybe people are not hyped, just benefitting from it
👤 Bnjoroge
The human brain seeks novelty and excitement. It’s why new projects are always exciting, new companies to join etc. This obviously extends to most trends. Cloud, crypto, AI. Obviously, there’s some utility(debatably with crypto), but overall it’s moreso that new stuff is just more fun and interesting
👤 reify
from a psychological stand point it is to do with Introjection.

Introjection occurs when a person unconsciously adopts the ideas, attitudes, or behaviors of another person or group, often an authority figure.

like someone with high status in the world of Big Tech. The CEO's we see selling their bullshit every day

The influencers, boosters and shills are perfectly places to create this type of environment.

The more you promote a product, the more likely people will introject that product even if it does not work work.

Imagine how a child learns the rules of life from parents.

These are introjected by the child without question or any consideration whether the rules are right or wrong, the child just takes it all in to become part of them